


The Cowards' Quartet

by aenor_llelo, Alderous, InvaluableOracle



Series: For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing [24]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A Surprising Zero (0) Amount Of Stabbings Occur, Connie Is Bemused, Established Relationship, Lars Is A Coward, Love Is Requiring No Context To Bully The Object Of Your Affections, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Steven Thinks This Is Going Pretty Well Honestly, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27195817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aenor_llelo/pseuds/aenor_llelo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alderous/pseuds/Alderous, https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvaluableOracle/pseuds/InvaluableOracle
Summary: "I, uh-" Lars looks to the side. "-I kind of kissed Connie?"Steven blinks. "Yes, and?"A pause."What do you mean, 'yes,and-"-In which Lars is a coward, half-human doesn't imply humanthinking, and misunderstandings are both less grand and less drastic than they probably should be.Let's try and have a normal Valentine's day, shall we?
Relationships: Lars Barriga & Connie Maheswaran, Lars Barriga & Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Lars Barriga/Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Series: For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604959
Comments: 8
Kudos: 204





	The Cowards' Quartet

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a series, and requires the context of its earlier parts. I can't help you if you haven't done the homework, mate.

* * *

Despite Steven's romantic heart, and the fact they'd been together for seven years and married for two of them, him and Connie had never really made much out of Valentine's Day.

Partly because Steven never even found _out_ about the holiday until they'd gotten engaged, and partly because Connie apparently had some kind of crusade against the modern consumerist tilt of most major holidays. The only celebration was really the day _after_ holidays, where they minorly went insane over candy discounts.

So when Lars had touched down again in time for Valentine's, there was no particular grand date in mind like he'd half expected with Steven in the picture. Just a quiet day inside the Temple, no one else around, waiting for Connie to come home from school.

Well, 'no one'. Morion had been around for a little bit before ducking out to be with Connie's parents for the day. 

_"What are you doing?"_ Sten tiredly smiles from his seat while the kid's dress flies about everywhere with boundless energy.

Morion, however, has no mind for this half of his dad. " _Tantai!_ " He drags along Vendan's leg. " _Tantai..._ "

**"Mm."** Vendan finally kneels down to face the bouncing bundle he'd dwarf otherwise. **"What is it, Vairam?"**

Morion says nothing at all- only taking advantage of their equal height to Vendan a very small kiss on the cheek.

Vendan's impassive face freezes like a mask. He blinks.

Morion teleports away with a giggle, but not before Vendan's blank mask falls, just a bit, into the softest, most boyish smile he must have ever given in his life.

"Am I allowed to say that was fucking adorable?" Lars hesitantly asks. "Because it was."

Sten laughs as he moves to stand and Vendan buries his head on his shoulder in an almost _shy_ way, before the light shifts around them and there's no one left but Steven.

"I don't know if you're _allowed_ to," he half teases like he didn't just _not exist_ a second ago, "but you're certainly free to try."

"Uh-huh, sure, _that_ doesn't sound like a trap." Lars stares out the window. "When's Connie coming back, anyway?"

"Somewhere in five to ten minutes," Steven smoothly answers, completely unbothered by his own vagueness. "Maybe more of a half hour if things get held up back in class."

"Cool, cool."

Lars' steadily growing claws click against a cup of honeyed pine tea that he's starting to like for some reason.

"I, uh-" Lars looks to the side. "- _IkindofkissedConnie_."

Steven blinks. "Yes. And?"

A silence.

"What do you _mean,_ _yes, and?_ "

"I don't-" Steven's mouth thins. "-I don't see what you're driving at."

"I literally kissed your wife behind your back, Steven." _How do I convey to you that this is normally something that upsets people?_

"I know this?" Steven flaps an idle hand. "Connie already told me that like- a month ago."

Oh." _Wait._ "So you just _knew_ the entire time and you didn't say anything about it-"

"Am I late?" Connie smoothly slides off of Lion's back. "The last presentation was a little-" She pauses, looking between the equally confused postures of the other two. "Am I in the middle of something here?"

"Connie!" Steven instantly brightens. "You're actually a little early."

"Connie," Lars despairs, "tell your wife he's being weird."

"You're being weird," Connie whispers easily, walking by to give Steven a quick kiss. "What's he being weird about?"

"He's being weird about that one time we accidentally made out after Christmas."

"Stars, if anything, you're being weirder about this than I am," Steven points out all rationally like some kind of bastard man.

"You're being weirdly understanding about this and I don't like it," Lars bristles.

"Did you forget to tell him the thing?" Connie asks Steven.

"What thing?"

"Eh?" Steven squints for a moment before his eyes clear with delayed understanding. "Oh, yeah, the thing."

" _What thing?_ " Lars repeats with an increased anxiety.

"The, uh-" The diamonds in Steven's eyes shutter with thought. "Connie told me, that there's some stuff I should tell you? Like, I really kind of don't care if you do things with each other. Or other people."

_What._ "What?"

"Yeah, I don't really care about that kind of body stuff?" He shrugs like this isn't some kind of shocking revelation. "It's nice sometimes, I guess, but I'm not that invested in it? So if you find other people to be with that's fine."

"Is that-" Lars looks between Steven and Connie. "-is that something you guys already do?"

"Eh." Connie takes a long drink of her own cup of coffee. " _I've_ never really taken up the offer aside from going on dates with some of my friends, but the option's always been open."

"And you're just... okay with that," Lars hesitantly clarifies.

"Why not?" Steven leans back into the counter. "You two have drives I don't. I know that maybe it's more... _normal_ to want people to be exclusive, but honestly I don't care how you go about it as long as you're staying safe and happy." He tilts his head. "Is that weird?"

"I don't even know anymore, to be honest," Lars admits. "I guess I thought you'd be more upset about it."

"Stars, please. I was in love with you for like, literal years before it occurred to me to do anything about it. And I know every single ex you've collected in that time frame. If I was going to get upset about you being with other people, we would have known about it by now."

Steven's hand brushes on Lars' face, just for a moment.

"I'm just happy to be with you, that's all."

_Oh._

"Steven, please," Connie snarks from the kitchen table, "just because he's dead doesn't mean you can give him a heart attack from all that sweetness."

"Oh, _honey_." Lars easily loops Steven's arm around him, a crooked half-smirk nested in Connie's direction. "Don't get jealous just because I'm stealing your wife."

"As if." Connie hides her blush behind her hot tea. "We both know Steven doesn't date people with glasses."

Lars waggles his half blinded glasses on his face. "Yeah, but he _gave_ me these bad boys, so I guess I'm just special like that."

"Okay, _sailor boy_ -"

"Alright, alright." Steven both gently pushes their heads down like ill-mannered puppies. "You're _both_ pretty, now keep up. You're forgetting the important thing here." A weighted pause. "The candy sales we're trying to get behind."

"Oh shit-"

"Language, Connie-"

"We gotta go to my fancy candy shop!" she blusters, suddenly standing.

"What's so special about your fancy candy shop?" Lars half-jokingly asks.

"They have liquor candy."

"Yeah, and?"

" _It's a challenge, Lars,_ " Connie hisses with a terrible conviction. "A challenge to see if we really _can_ get drunk on chocolate."

"You can sit this one out," Steven offers. "I know getting out into the city's been harder on you lately."

He could wait it out.

He could keep to the comfort of his own silence, bake something while he's at it, and wait for things to fall into place.

It might be nice.

"Y'know what?" Lars finally smiles, dead eye daring to almost shine past the blinded lens of his glasses. "I don't think I will. I wanna see where this is going."

"Oh?" Connie dares to grin caustically. "You want to third wheel on our fancy little Valentine's date?"

"What are you gonna do about it?" His eyes dart to the knife he knows is stashed in her boots. "Stab me?"

"You fucking wish, Lars."

"I'm starting to feel like introducing you two to eachother was a mistake," Steven flatly jokes.

"Shh," Connie reassures with a tender hand pat. "Don't worry about it. Just shut up and drive."

"Yes, dear."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments, critique, your eternal suffering, and kudos all equally welcomed.
> 
> Join the Discord server for behind the scenes nonsense, yearning questions of my questionable literary choices, and future stories. If you want more ways to support our work, you can find it on said discord or on my twitter!
> 
> https://discord.gg/xdhnqKj  
> https://twitter.com/aenorllelo
> 
> We have a TV Tropes page! Give it some editor love: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/ForADiamondIsAMarveledThing
> 
> (a special thanks to BattleBlaze. you know what you did. you mad fucking lad, you wyrm unstringed.)


End file.
